Saturday 03 Oct 2026
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Temasek Holdings pocketed US$2.5 billion ($3.1 billion) by trimming stakes in two of China’s largest banks, pricing the deals at the bottom of an indicative range, according to term sheets seen by Reuters on Thursday.

The Singapore state investor’s latest reshuffle of its sprawling portfolio comes at a time the Hong Kong financial sub-index has risen about 15% this year.

While China banks’ shares have rebounded after last year’s 27% slide, the outlook for the sector isn’t particularly rosy, as underscored by the weaker-than-expected first-quarter earnings posted by the nation’s ’Big Four’ lenders last week which showed a slowing economy and rising funding costs biting.

Temasek had increased exposure to China banks last month by buying a $2.3 billion stake in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China from Goldman Sachs. By selling down the stakes in China Construction Bank and Bank of China now, it would be rebalancing its financial sector exposure.

Temasek, which is the single-biggest shareholder in Standard Chartered Bank Plc, sold about 1.61 billion CCB shares at HK$5.99 ($0.96) each and some 3.08 billion Bank of China shares at HK$3.13 per share, the term sheets showed. It was not immediately clear who bought the shares.

The Singapore investor manages about US$150 billion in assets, spread across a portfolio of some 200 companies, though just 30 or so make up 80% of the portfolio’s value, leading some critics to say the company should trim down and be more focused.

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